Kevin Kelly
My jaw clenched. ‘What if I can’t find it?’ What if she finds out what I did? Then what?’
If only I knew how little this moment meant.
Her uniform looked uncomfortable. I wanted to help but knew I couldn’t.
“I’m so lost,” she said.
So was I. But we started walking.
I don’t know which I would have regretted more. Lying about being able to help, or being no help at all. My mind loves consequences. It kept asking, “Then what?”
I decided not to think about “then” until we got there.
For now I’ll let the cold fear crawl out of my arm hair. And I’ll smile with my heart. Then she’ll know I have good intentions.
And maybe “then” will turn into a love story.
But when I turned around she was gone.
More fear rubbed my shoulders. I walked backwards to find her. Would she slap me? Or marry me?
I unclenched my jaw. Always give yourself permission to be scared later. Just not right now.
I spoke to Kevin Kelly. He’s the founding editor of Wired magazine and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, “The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future.”
He’s a futurist. There are only a few people I trust with predictions about the future. He’s one of them.
“Tracking is coming. AI is coming. Robots are coming,” he says on today’s podcast.
The future is here.
“We can mold it to make it work for us, but we’re not going to be able to stop it, or be afraid of it, or be scared of it.”
On today’s podcast, he tells you what to expect. He reveals “the inevitable.”
And what to do about it now.
This episode is not just about what we “know” is coming in the future. It answers the one question we’ll never stop asking: “Then what?”
It’s the question that makes us panic until we find where we’re going. Or the right woman. We look around, worried, unable to see the small joys. Two men sharing photos of their families. A woman leaning forward to hear her friend better. She’s not alone. The trees shake and I’m breathing.
Then what?
More life. We trip someone by accident, make a small joke, they don’t laugh and then the stock market crashes.
When I found the woman who found the playground she said, “Thank you so much! I saw it out of the corner of my eye.”
I thought it was inevitable.
I thought I’d end up running to get away from misleading her. But her smile proved me wrong.
The inevitable is unpredictable. The myths of the future lead to the regrets of today.
We don’t know what will be successful or who will come up with the right ideas to accompany these new innovations.
But we can learn how to adapt. And where to experiment.
Keep reading to learn Kevin Kelly’s prediction on who will benefit and profit in the future. It could be you. But only if you follow this one rule.
Or listen to my interview with Kevin Kelly to hear 5 ways to be on the right side of the future and:
- Kevin Kelly’s techniques to predicting the future – [4:39]
- How to discover where there’s “a need” for innovation [16:16]
- Kevin Kelly’s predictions for 100 years from now… and 1,000 years from now [26:08]
- Learn how to create a business built around the latest innovations [47:00]
- Find out the next biggest platform [52:50]
- “One of the most valuable things you could do today…” [1:02:43]
- Plus my latest advice for getting 7 streams of income (click here to get a sneak peak) [1:05:05]
“Embrace the future”
I’ve mistakenly thought love was about getting someone else to see the world how you see it.
I’ve mistakenly thought a lot of things.
And with each mistake, I find something new. Some unresearched, inner dwelling of wisdom I didn’t know was there.
In hindsight, every Uber is a missed investment and every Shark Tank idea is something you should’ve thought of.
Then you’d be a billionaire.
I don’t have to manipulate love. Or the future. I only need to hold space for the person I love or the moment I’m in to be themselves.
There’s one rule Kevin Kelly leaves us with in our interview. And it’s wandered through me ever since we spoke a few months ago.
“Embrace things rather than try and fight them. Work with things rather than try and run from them or prohibit them,” he said.
“It’s by use [that] we figure out what things are good for. Edison, who invented the phonograph, had no idea what a phonograph was going to be good for. He made a list of ideas, and his first idea was that it would be used to record the last words of the dead. That was his first idea.”
The desired outcome didn’t happen. Edison’s invention became something other than his original idea. But he embraced that, too.
Maybe, if I embrace what I could never see coming…
Then I won’t mistakenly give to receive, work to get rich, or hold a door to hear “thank you.”
I’ll embrace everything.
Including the space between today and tomorrow.
Resources and Links:
Recommending reading by Kevin Kelly:
- Read the #1 New York Times bestseller, “The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future“
- Read “What Technology Wants“
- Read his graphic novel, “The Silver Cord“
- Read his articleS “1000 True Fans” and “Better Than Free“
Plus:
Also mentioned:
- “The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge” by Matt Ridley
- “Magic and Loss” by Virgina Heffernan
- “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline